With U6 unemployment over 17% and the US economy mired in recession, times are challenging for manufacturers.  Local governments are in a cash squeeze and donations to non-profits are also down across the board.  CFO’s everywhere have much on their plates, even though plants have slowed and production is depressed, money is in short supply.  A utility audit can uncover savings overlooked from past good months (36  in many states) and allow you to make changes to reduce utility bills as your business recovers in coming years.  This can mean cash now and future savings as your business rebuilds.   Each month that goes by without knowing the results of a utility audit is one month (36 months ago)  less that can mistakes can be audited and recovered.  Each current month that lapses is a month that a corrected billing will not be in effect.  Since obtaining bill histories and anaylsis is done by Discovery, very little time is required of CFO’s and staff to complete an audit and implement the findings.  This is one simple and easy thing that can increase cash flow and cut expenses.  We just completed an audit for a national bottling company that resulted in a $70,000.00 in rebates and $2,000.00 savings per month, beginning January 2010!  Let us get started on your company today!

We just finished up a successful trade show at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, IN.  We were new to the Farm Equipment Show, and to the agriculture trade shows in general, but we found it to be a good venue to discuss utility audits with farmers, grain suppliers, and equipment manufacturers.

It suprised me that not too many people had heard of utility audits, and most were new to the general concept of cost recovery auditing to help efficiency.  In fact, we were tracked down by a couple of radio stations that serve the agricultural market in the midwest to do interviews on what we do and how we can help today’s farmers.  It brought such attention that we made their top story on their website as well.

Read the Story: http://www.hoosieragtoday.com/wire/news/00026_electricaudit_222919.php

Listen to the Interview: http://hatchat.net/?p=1222

Everyone seemed to be receptive to the idea of having an audit done without any upfront cost.  And about half of them were big enough energy users to qualify.  We also met some industry experts who helped us understand the energy use in the industry.  Gary Apel at National Starch was lucky enough to have a booth close to ours, which made it really easy for us to scatter him with question after question about the industry.  Gary was a lot of help in pointing us in the right direction.

We’re glad we made the trek out to wintry Indianapolis for the show and hope to have the same success next year!

On October 1st, 2009, Discovery Energy purchased Edison Cost Management, a utility auditing firm out of Santaquin, Utah.  The move bolstered Discovery’s experience in several auditing disciplines, in order to better serve its client base with cost recovery audits.

Edison had been in business for 5 years under the managment of Joseph Bigler.  Edison mainly served Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and had a handful of clients in Flordia and Indiana.  All employees have now been transitioned to Discovery Energy, and all clients are now being serviced by Discovery as well.

“The move just made sense,”  remarked Discovery CFO Gunther Fischli, “Discovery’s clients will benefit from Edison’s experience, and Edison’s clients will benefit from Discovery’s experience and expertise.  Once a client experiences collecting savings from one audit, they want to participate in all audits for which they qualify.  This merger helps us offer them more opportunities for savings.”

For more information on the transaction.  Please contact Discovery’s home office.

Discovery Energy Media Department

We are pleased to announce that along with our complete line of Utility Audits and other Cost Reduction Audits, we are now offering a complete audit of your Worker’s Compensation premiums.  New expertise has joined our team in order for us to offer our clients a full product line of cost reduction audits. 

Workers Compensation Audits will be performed just like our Utility Audits–100% performance based.  The minimum spend to qualify for a performance based WC audit is $100,000 per year in premiums.  But the best part is–our auditors have a refund average of $30,000, with a 69% success ratio!!

So tell your friends–with that kind of refund, they will owe you more than dinner!  We now not only reduce your energy bills, but your insurance costs will now also fall victim to Discovery Energy’s Cost Recovery Audits.

2nd place team

Our first trip to the annual FICAP (Florida Independent Concrete & Associated Products) Accociation golf tournament at Southern Dunes Country Club in Haines City, Florida yielded us a second place finish, and more importantly, a host of companies eager to save money and reclaim refunds on their energy usage.

We were bested by one stroke for 1st place, but our team had the best shot in the tournament.  Bill Edwards took out his putter 50 yards from the green, and rolled one within 8 feet of the hole.  I’ve never seen a putter out of the bag for a long shot like that.  Amazing.

We have saved the association members thousands of dollars already, and we are working on a few more we met at the golf tournament.  All in all, it was a great trip.  We look forward to next year’s outing.

Hello everyone.  This is our maiden post on our new blog.  We thought we might keep everyone updated on different areas or industries we are auditing, as well as any upcoming projects or announcements we might have.  I’m sure we’ll also add some comedic relief as we come across it.

We had our research team (Gunther) update our auditing statistics, and I thought you might be curious of what they turned out to be, so here they are:

• Audits that resulted in savings — 68.4%
• Average size of refund — 67.2% of monthly utility expenditure
• Average size of ongoing savings — 9.4% of monthly utility expenditure
• Average total savings — 14.8% of monthly expediture
• Closing ratio of client appointments to clients sold — 83.9%

We have more, but I guess those are the most interesting.  As an account rep, I’m the most proud of the 83.9% closing ratio.  Although, it is a pretty easy sell when you are selling something on a contingency basis that doesn’t hardly require much work at all on the clients part.  We have a guy in the office who sold life insurance in a previous career, and he tells us the horror stories of walking uphill both ways in the snow to sales appointments.

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted with anything interesting that we come across…